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REGULAR MEETING FEBRUARY 13, 2012 <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />he would expect them to follow through. He stated that we don’t take our agreements, <br />our contracts lightly and stated that he hoped they don’t either. <br /> <br />Councilmember Schey asked if we have factored in the hours that South Bend employees <br />have invested in this as well as time South Bend employees will invest in managing this <br />going forward, is that part of the $65,000.00. <br /> <br />Mr. Gilot stated no. He advised that they have volunteered with Council direction to take <br />a leadership role on this. He stated there have other projects where Mishawaka took the <br />lead role on a joint project, they put more staff time in that we did and we just wrote a <br />check to them. Same thing with the County, there have been cases where they have been <br />the lead agency on a cooperative project and the other players put their resources into the <br />deal. When you take the lead role in a collaborative project between multiple units of <br />government, somebody’s got to take the lead. On this one the Council asked his office to <br />do it. <br /> <br />Councilmember Henry Davis asked where the money comes from. <br /> <br /> Mr. Gilot advised that the money comes from cable franchise fees that cable service <br />providers like Comcast would pay directly to the city or the county or whoever the <br />jurisdiction that owned the public right-of-way where those cables were traveling. There <br />are in the right-of-way as a privilege not a right and they pay a franchise fee for that. <br />That was established in some cities at 3% other cities 5% of the basic cable services <br />revenue. When the State took that over a few years ago it became 5% of the base cable <br />service amount became the franchise fee that the State collected and remitted it back <br />proportionately to the various jurisdictions. The City of South Bend gets on the order of <br />$800,000 a year and we are proposing to spend $65,000.00 that came into the general <br />fund and then was appropriated in the Common Council budget for expenditure with the <br />direction to the Board of Public Works to do the RFP do the contracting and secure the <br />purchase order out of the Council budget and pay the bill. <br /> <br />A Public Hearing was held on the Resolution at this time. <br /> <br />Councilmember Davis asked if it was private or public money. <br /> <br />Mr. Gilot advised that it a fee that people pay for cable TV that is paid to the government <br />once it enters the general fund and is comingled with other money, its now public dollars <br />that the Common Council appropriate. <br /> <br />Mr. Angel Hernandez, WNIT, 300 W. Jefferson, South Bend, Indiana, spoke in favor of <br />this bill. Mr. Hernandez stated that WNIT will solicit membership and cooperation from <br />other communities as well. He stated that Niles is definitely an area that they would like <br />to solicit and bring them forth and have them participate in the program as well as <br />possibly even Elkhart and any other communities that receive Comcast Cable. He stated <br />that their intent is to actually expand the cooperation of the communities as to bring down <br />the price for South Bend and not just continue it at this level. <br /> <br />The following individuals spoke in favor of this bill: <br /> <br />Mr. Peter Helland, President, Public Access Michiana, 751 W. Ewing, South Bend <br />Indiana, spoke in favor of this bill. Mr. Helland Mr. Helland stated that he was at the <br />meeting this afternoon and there were a few things that were said that he would like to <br />clarify. He stated that a lot of momentum for this started in South Bend. He stated that <br />he is President Public Access Michiana and they have been meeting for many years. He <br />stated that George Lane from Mishawaka and Mr. Williams from WUBS in South Bend <br />started this project and it is a South Bend effort. He stated that they traveled to <br />Kalamazoo, MI and Ft. Wayne, IN and learned that they have a budget of approximately <br />of $500,000 a year. They get their franchise money based on population which is a little <br />higher than here. He stated that they provide that money to their residents to provide <br />public access. He stated that they way he sees it is that we are a university town a town <br />of ideas so to have our town make available a public access channel, one which is there <br /> 23 <br /> <br />